Posts Tagged ‘Joseph Stockton Elementary School

[ Click above to embiggen: Some of the promotional material for website www.BradleyThomasComic.com, which was wiped clean of all content on the morning of Friday 5/31/13 after our initial reporting on “The Case of the Stripping School Teacher” was published ]

A sixth grade teacher in a Chicago Public School classroom has been identified as a moonlighting stand-up comic who mocks his black students’ names, intelligence, and home life in degrading “comedy routines” staged in the city’s LGBTQAI community…where gay Chicago men have a longstanding habit of making racist, “ghetto” jokes at the expense of black people…but are never called-out on it because gays are a protected and favored class in our national media; a gay public school teacher ridiculing and degrading his black students for the amusement of gay audiences thus pits two of the institutional Left’s primary demographic groups against one another in as politically-incorrect terms as possible. Chicago’s now faced with the rare spectacle of wondering whom the media will side with on this one: the black children being mocked or the gay comic who degrades them on stage?

Bradley Thomas Balof, a gay, white, male teacher at Joseph Stockton Elementary School on the North Side of Chicago continues to perform his standup routine at venues like Zanies in Old Town, with troupes such as OutLoud Chicago, and in appearances at Sidetrack the Video Bar in Boystown (where Balof also serves as the bar’s master-of-ceremonies (MC) for special events and regularly dances nearly-nude as an in-house erotic entertainer).

Balof’s “comedy stylings” at Sidetrack and other gay venues include:

* Mocking the names of his black students, particularly the females, as “Shaquisha”, “Loquisha”, “”Shaniqua” , “Bon’Qui Qui”, and other variations of same that are disturbingly popular “jokes” amongst many gay men in Chicago

* Informing his audiences that he’s a public school teacher in Chicago who is exasperated by the lack of learning ability of his black students…and then detailing their academic struggles on stage in a “my students are so funny, they think 2 plus 2 is 5″ kind of way; other “jokes” in this vein involved the children not knowing what various sexual or other adult terms meant and then having “funny” responses to Balof about them

* Affecting a “ghetto accent” and taking on “ghetto black mannerisms” while telling “jokes” about the black people he claims to encounter during his teaching day

* Ridiculing black parents, especially the mothers, for the poor school performance of their kids

* Maligning black women as welfare queens and linking their reproductive frequency to the lackluster academic performance of their children

* Presenting himself on stage as a sainted martyr for having to “put up with black kids all day at work”

Balof regularly performs these “jokes” as the master-of-ceremonies (MC) for high-profile events held at Sidetrack the Video Bar, which is owned by prominent Chicago gay activists Art Johnston and Jose Pepin “Pepe” “Pep” Pena (who are also the principle fundraisers and founders for/of the lobbying organization Equality Illinois). Johnston and Pena are regularly present for Balof’s comedy routines and laugh along with the rest of the gay audience as Balof mocks black people unrelentingly. This is especially disturbing, since Johnston and Pena take the stage at these same events to promote Equality Illinois’ purported mission of achieving “equality for everyone in Illinois”…but then they laugh uproariously when one of their employees lambasts the culture and intelligence of black Chicago children and their parents.

I have personally and repeatedly complained to both Johnston and Pena about the offensive nature of the “comedy” performed at Sidetrack, with Pena in particular telling me in his thick accent that he didn’t care about complaints and that he “thinks this is funny”…and so Sidetrack will keep doing what it’s been doing, with Pena’s personal approval, regardless of how awful some of these “jokes” truly are.

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Sidetrack the Video Bar films all of its special events MC-ed by Balof and stores these recordings digitally in its VJ/sound booth above its Main Bar room at 3349 N. Halsted in Boystown; as of Friday 5/31/13, it appears an investigation now has been launched by the Chicago Public Schools administration to obtain copies of all these videos for review, as Sidetrack has never made these performances by Balof available on its website or YouTube. There is an entire video production facility in-house and on-site at Sidetrack, with three or four dedicated staff members in charge of filming, editing, and archiving every event that happens in the bar.

[ Click PLAY above: as of this writing, this commercial for “Laugh Track” found on YouTube is the only film from the events available; while it does not show the racist jokes about public school students that are so offensive and only offers a taste of what “Laugh Track” was all about, it does prove that these shows were filmed by Sidetrack using the bar’s video production facilities. You can see screens to the sides of the comics where they’re being projected while they work the microphone; a Sidetrack camera operator was filming them so it could be broadcast on the screens and those performances were then captured digitally and archived in the Sidetrack VJ/sound booth ]

These “Laugh Track” shows were heavily promoted by owners Johnston, Pena, and Hyde with lavish posters and ads in all of the city’s gay entertainment publications. By all accounts, they were extremely well-attended and brought a lot of business into the bar on what was otherwise a slow night of the week. But, the consistently degrading nature of the material aimed at black people and children quickly soured audiences and “Laugh Track” was canceled unceremoniously in 2011…with most references to it disappeared down the “memory hole”. After hoping the ill will and hurt feelings that initial year of performances caused had been forgotten, Sidetrack attempted to resurrect “Laugh Track” again in the spring of 2012…but it was not restored as regularly featured entertainment in the bar. Balof, however, continued his racist comedy stylings at Sidetrack whenever he took the mic as an MC of special events and still performs at Zanies and other venues whenever they will have him…making fun of the black students in his sixth grade class wherever he can plug in a microphone.

Bradley Thomas (www.bradleythomascomic.com) is a comedian, Activist, Teacher, Drag Queen, Leatherman, Bartender, Actor, Model, Bottom. Bradley Thomas does it all. Whether for his weekly show Laugh Track at Sidetrack, Night of 100 Drag Queens, International Mister Leather, or other performances Bradley has been performing as a comedian and emcee for over a decade. His quick wit, and sardonic view help him create stand-up performances that are both relevant and irreverent. Bradley does not shy away from incorporating equality, sexuality, and social justice into his art. Of course, he is quickest to laugh at himself, if you dont beat him to the punch. If laughter is medicine, Bradley hopes his audiences OD every night.

A “bottom”, as listed in the bio above, is a reference to Balof’s preferred position during anal sex (in which he elects to be the receptive partner); this is the first time I’ve ever seen a comedian list personal information such as this in a program bio…and one that his sixth grade students could easily find online in an internet search, no less. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin DuJan is the author of SHUT UP! The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment. He is a gay, Catholic, conservative, Republican who advocates for government transparency, Freedom of Information, Open Meetings, and First Amendment rights. He lives in Chicago with his boyfriend Justin.

The Chicago Public School system is now embroiled in another breaking scandal as it was uncovered this weekend that a gay porn actor and male stripper/erotic entertainer is currently employed as a sixth grade teacher at majority-minority Joseph Stockton Elementary School on Chicago’s north side.

This follows scandals in Florida and Massachusetts where FOX News and other investigative reporting teams discovered former gay porn stars teaching elementary school students in the Miami and Boston environs. Here in Illinois, I’ve uncovered irrefutable proof that the Chicago Public School system currently employs a man who continues to moonlight in the adult entertainment industry; by day, he’s charged with taking care of classrooms full of mostly minority children…but at night he bares his body in sweaty bars and upon public stages for the hungry eyes of other gay men.

Are parents of elementary school students in Chicago informed that at least one of the men teaching their children is currently involved in the adult entertainment industry and does the Chicago Public School System have any idea of the sort of nude moonlighting in which at least one of its teachers engages? These are questions we ask your help in answering this week as we get to the bottom of this new Chicago Public Schools scandal that warrants a full investigation by the state and federal Education Departments.

[ Click above to embiggen: employment information for Bradley T. Balof, who earns nearly $60,000/year as a public school teacher…but still performs as an adult entertainer at night ]

Bradley Thomas Balof has been on my radar for some time, since he performs as a stand-up comic and serves as the master-of-ceremonies (MC) for sexually-charged events at Sidetrack the Video Bar here in Chicago’s heavily-gay Boystown neighborhood.

While on the stage, Balof openly talks about being a Chicago Public School teacher…and, in fact, often mocks the mostly black students in his charge by incorporating variations of racist “Shaniqua” or “Loquisha” ghetto-humor into his comedy stylings; these are “jokes” commonly told by gay white men like Balof that depict his black students as ignorant “Shaniquas”, “Loquishas” and other ebonics-inspired characters who are in his opinion unable to learn, difficult to teach, and almost entirely coming from broken homes with missing fathers and stereotypical black “welfare queen” mothers, whom Balof portrays on stage as having children for the expressed purpose of collecting more government benefits (and then shunting the kids off to him and his fellow Chicago Public School teachers to deal with for the day). White gay men laugh uproariously at these “jokes”, which has made Balof a regular on the gay comedy circuit, according to his website: BradleyThomasComic.com. His experience teaching black students in a Chicago Public School classroom provides roughly 80% of what he talks about in his standup routines…and his jokes primarily boil down to the fact that the “Shaniquas”, “Loquishas”, and other black students in his classes exist entirely to be laughed at by gay men who find this style of “comedy” hilarious.

For the uninitiated, it’s incredibly common to find gays mocking blacks in niche comedy venues…while simultaneously black comedians often find it hilarious to make fun of gay people; this is part of the dynamic of the Left where one specific demographic group often mocks and targets another (but the national media never calls any of them out on it, since it’s one minority mercilessly maligning another for intra-party Democrat amusement).

When Balof’s not denigrating his students and their families at Sidetrack or other gay venues around town, he also appears nude or nearly-nude as a male stripper for various celebrations and serves as an erotic entertainer at leather and fetish-themed events, where he’s costumed in everything from steel-studded jockstraps to dog collars and brightly colored thongs or g-strings. Balof has seemingly made no effort whatsoever to hide his adult activities from simple Google image searches and, in fact, both Sidetrack the Video Bar (one of his employers) and ChicagoPride.com (an entertainment site focused on life in Boystown) prominently feature many images of Balof stripping, strutting, and posing nearly-nude around town. Sidetrack, during its recently discontinued “Laugh Track” standup comedy nights, additionally hosted a great number of Balof’s “comedic” attacks on black people and the mocking of his specific students at Joseph Stockton Elementary in Chicago. Sidetrack maintains a video archive of all the “Laugh Track” comedy performances from the years 2010 to 2012, as Balof’s racist “comedy” making fun of his black students was recorded by Sidetrack’s video production team.

Note: If the Chicago Public Schools or Illinois State Board of Education subpoenaed those tapes, they’d have footage of Balof’s “comedy stylings” where poor black children at Joseph Stockton Elementary are the butts of his “jokes”. Shockingly, he’s smart enough not to maintain a YouTube channel with any videos of his standup routine…but I personally saw Sidetrack’s videographer taping Balof delivering these “Shaniqua” and “Loquisha” riffs during those Laugh Track events and know that as of this writing they are sitting in the video production booth at Sidetrack and have not ever been destroyed.

[ Click above to embiggen: Bradley Thomas Balof appears as “Brad Thomas” in the gay adult films Into It and Bowser Makes A Movie ]

Going by the name “Brad Thomas”, Balof has appeared in at least two low-budget pornographic movies and is featured in sexually-charged music videos that can easily be found posted to the web. In one of his films, titled Into It and manufactured by the adult entertainment company Hustlers in 2006, Balof stars as “Brett” and is featured on the back cover art of the video reclining nude in a position of sexual satisfaction. The erotic film involves male hustlers, heavy drug use, a “night of unbridled sex”, nudity, a sado-masochistic relationship, and other similar attractions geared towards a gay male audience. A “hustler”, for those who don’t know, is a low-rent male prostitute who picks up “Johns” on the street or in gay bars in a city such as Chicago.

In 2005’s Bowser Makes a Movie from erotic entertainer Hornbill Films, Balof inhabits the character of “Vincent Van Coq” in a story about a young gay man who decides “to pursue his life dream…making an adult film”. “Coq” is, obviously, a Gallic manipulation of “cock”‘…which is itself American for regular old “penis”. Balof, billed here as “Brad Thomas” once again, appears shirtless on the cover art for the film grabbing at his penis through his pants and can be spotted on the reverse in a scene where the title character Bowser indeed films the porno he’d dreamed of making. Dirty Bird Pictures seems to have continued the “Bowser” character into several sequels, which include Bowser Makes A Porn and Bowser Makes Another Porn, but it’s unclear if Balof’s character Vincent Van Coq was featured in these further sexual adventures (and none of these erotic features should be confused with the angry, testudine dragon that repeatedly kidnapped Princess Peach in the Super Mario Bros. video game series).

The music video “Joan Crawford Goes to Hell” by Chicago-based Joan Crawford-inspired punk band “The Joans” featured Balof (credited as Bradley Thomas yet again) gyrating provocatively (starting at the 2:40 second mark in the video above), dolled up as one of Satan’s barely-dressed imps in leather and soot as the Hell-bound, deceased actress is engulfed in CGI flames. Near the end of the video, Balof kneels before Joan Crawford and paws at her sexually…before gyrating his body some more in disco a-go-go special effects while a skeleton dances in rainbow lights behind him. The video closes with Joan Crawford pushing an eager Balof’s head down to a sexual position conducive for cunnilingus. According to the end credits, the video was filmed at gay leather fetish bar Jackhammer in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago.

Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago is when the annual International Mr. Leather (aka, “IML”) fetish pageant is held in a hotel downtown. Through the years, Balof has served as master-of-ceremonies (MC) for this event, where he’s appeared on stage in various forms of fetish gear, underpants, jockstraps, leather briefs, or nude. Balof in fact proudly posts this adult entertainment experience on his own website, as featured on his “Resume” page, and can clearly be seen performing his MC duties at the “world’s largest annual Leathermen convention”. The term “Leathermen” refers to gay men who enjoy a fetish of leather outfits, gear, and the corresponding sexual stereotypes associated with the “leather community”. The IML convention hosts sexual orgy parties, a “beauty pageant” of sorts where a nearly-nude “Mr. Leather” is crowned each year, and an expo of sexual toys and fetish gear for the “leather community”. In addition to serving as the MC for the major events, Balof danced in his underwear, in jockstraps, and nude for the enjoyment of IML attendees.

As an employee of Sidetrack the Video Bar, Balof regularly appears in his underwear, jockstraps, dolled up as Liza Minnelli, and nearly-nude at various events that owner Art Johnston hosts in his bar (in addition to Balof’s normal shifts as a Sidetrack underpants-clad bartender). Serving as master-of-ceremonies (MC) for these sexually charged events, Balof also seizes the opportunity to engage in polarizing and oftentimes hateful speech directed at Christians, such as the tirade he engaged in against Dan Cathy and the Chick-Fil-A restaurant chain at the Equality Illinois Pie Toss held at Sidetrack last year, where Balof berated a man dressed in a chicken costume as an effigy of Cathy and his company. Balof hosts the Sidetrack Mardi Gras, Halloween, and drag events…where he similarly revs up considerable hatred amongst Sidetrack employees and customers for Christians, conservatives in general, and others Balof labels “enemies of the gay community”. He encourages Sidetrack’s clientele and staff to hate Christians and Republicans and to take to the streets after events to punish and persecute those he and Sidetrack portray as “the enemy”. The net effect of all of this is quite similar to the exhortations against Emanuel Goldstein in George Orwell’s 1984, with Balof’s purposefully-chosen sexual-charged attire designed to get the maximum attention of the crowds for his rabid, anti-Christian and anti-conservative calls to arm.

When Balof lists himself as “an activist” on his resume, this is the sort of activity that he means.

You may also recall that Balof was one of the five hosts of the now-defunct Boystown tee-vee show “Only At Brunch”, which lasted just one episode back in the fall of 2011 and is today remembered primarily for the cruel bullying of special needs toddler Trig Palin by one of Balof’s co-hosts (while Balof himself laughed at these “jokes” and did nothing to stop them on camera) and misogynistic attacks on Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Only At Brunch was promoted heavily at Sidetrack, where the show held its premiere episode-watching party with complimentary drinks provided by Art Johnston. Johnston, it should be noted, is constantly informed about this sort of activity continuing in his place of business but he elects never to put any stop to it. Similarly, it should also be noted that Johnston self-styles himself as “Chicago’s Harvey Milk” and the principal leader of the “gay community” in the state of Illinois.

Johnston has been inducted into the Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame and has seemingly no understanding of the word “hypocrisy”, since his establishment Sidetrack is ground zero for the hatred revved up against Christians and conservatives in Chicago…but, yet, Johnston never turns down an opportunity to lambast Christians and conservatives as “bigots” or persecutors of the gay community. Johnston, following Alinsky Rules for Radicals to the letter, accuses his “enemies” of doing the very things he and his staff engage in at Sidetrack.

To promote his standup comedy appearances during “Queer Comedy at Zanies in Chicago”, Balof appeared on a YouTube talk show called TheQudotco, in which he spoke openly about his employment as a Chicago Public School teacher. Tony Soto, the host of “The Qu”, specifically asked Balof if any of his students were aware of his activities outside of school hours…and implicitly asked whether the minors he taught during the day understood what their teacher got up to at night. As you can see in the video, Soto is clearly amused by the idea that a public school teacher could lead Bradley Thomas Balof’s double life.

Balof gave a quick run-down of his career outside the classroom, by noting that he started off as a circus ringmaster, then got into MC-ing events, hosting drag performances, and ultimately serving as the Master-of-Ceremonies for the International Mr. Leather (IML) convention (which Balof described as “expanding his horizons every Memorial Day weekend”, giving the camera a wink at the double-entendre obvious to anyone with a concept of what sort of “expanding” happens to a man’s body during “IML” weekend in Chicago; it seems “horizons” is slang to Soto for “sphincter”).

At about the 1:35 mark in the video above, Balof talks about still trying to find “his performance voice” while Soto asks if any of his students have discovered his extracurricular activities online. Balof acknowledges that children have, in fact, found his “other life” online…and even acknowledges they could be watching this very video by admonishing them to “do their homework!”.

Balof states directly into the camera at about the 1:50 mark: “I approach it as this is something that I do and that everyone should follow their (sic) passion in life. And to be a role model and to be in front of students…to not also want to express this artistic side of myself and to entertain people which is just something that is innate to the core of my being would be to not practice what I am preaching”.

At the 2:09 minute mark, Soto asks Balof how much material for his comedy routines he gets from his job and Balof states that he gets: “as much material as any comic gets from their (sic) family or their (sic) job or whatever. Funny things happen on a daily basis, oh yah, sure. We all remember what it was like to be 13 and, yah, exactly”. Since Balof’s students are mostly black in a majority-minority school like Joseph Stockton Elementary, those “funny stories from work” are thus primarily about young black children whom Balof regularly lampoons with heavy racial stereotypes in his comedy routines.

Near the 4:00 minute mark, Soto asks Balof how he juggles being a public school teacher with working in a bar and doing comedy and Balof explains that he does most of his adult entertaining during the school breaks, including the three months in the summer that he has off every year as a Chicago Public Schools employee earning about $60,000 annually (plus benefits…and including a full pension for the rest of his life at his last level of salary when he retires).

Clearly, working in a public school as a teacher is a highly attractive day job for entertainers in the adult industry…since once they age out of porn, stripping, bartending, and fetish conventions they can retire in luxury on permanent pensions provided to them by the taxpayers of Illinois.

Like Balof, other adult entertainers have also been enticed by the ridiculously-generous salaries and benefits packages in the public school system, including the union guarantee that they all maintain their level of pay at retirement for the rest of their natural lives.

Just like Bradley Thomas Balof, the porn stars Collin O’Neal (real name Shawn Loftis) and Hytch Cawke (real name Kevin Hogan) became public school teachers to qualify for the high salaries, lavish benefits, and guaranteed retirement funds that accompany teaching positions in most states. O’Neal/Loftis taught at Nautilus Middle School in Miami, Florida and Cawke/Hogan found a job at Mystic Valley Charter School in Massachusetts. This is around the time, coincidentally, that Bradley Thomas Balof also started working for the Chicago Public School system.

FOX News reporter Mike Beaudet ambushed Kevin Hogan back in 2011 on camera and confronted him about his gay-for-pay porn past; this is a term for a straight (and often married) male who performs in gay sex videos strictly for the money (most often with the wife’s approval). His wife, it turned out, was also a former porn star (so clearly she didn’t mind what her husband was up to). In 2011 Hogan was suspended with pay while the situation was investigated and finally in 2012 the School Board in Massachusetts decided to dismiss Hogan and not allow him to teach in the 2012-2013 academic year, citing the fact that he had previously performed in adult oriented videos and he’d highly embarrassed his school when word on this got out.

So, that makes one School Board in Democrat-controlled Miami, Florida that decided a gay man’s porn past has no relevancy to the appropriateness of his being a public school teacher…and one School Board in a slightly less Leftist area of Massachusetts that decided a public school was not the best place for a retired porn star to work during the day.

What’s interesting about the Matter of Bradley Thomas Balof is that he currently still works in the adult entertainment industry as a male stripper, erotic entertainer and MC at fetish events, dancer in music videos, and additionally delivers highly racist comedy routines in which he mocks his public school students. While it appears the last pornographic movie he appeared in was in 2005 or 2006, the rest of his adult-acitivities-moonlighting still continues (mostly during breaks in the school year). He was just nearly-naked again in public this weekend, as a matter of fact.

So, unlike porn stars Loftis and Hogan, Balof is still very much in the adult entertainment business…while simultaneously being employed as a Chicago Public School teacher.

This being Chicago, with Rahm Emanuel as our Mayor, Barbara Byrd-Bennett as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system, and Karen Lewis as the President of the Chicago Teacher’s Union…what do you think the odds are of Bradley Thomas Balof continuing to teach the sixth grade by day in a shirt and tie while gyrating in bars and on public stages at night wearing not much more than some coconut oil and a smile?

Hope! Change! Adult entertainers for teachers everywhere!

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QUESTION FOR COMMENTS: Do you think it’s appropriate for a Chicago Public School teacher to appear in porn, work as a male stripper, MC leather fetish events, and perform comedy routines in which he mocks his sixth grade students for their race and (in his opinion) lack of intelligence?

What would you do if you found out an adult entertainer was teaching in YOUR school district where you lived…and this teacher was not a “former adult entertainer”, but was someone who currently engages in this activity after he’s done teaching your children for the day?

Do you think that people employed with taxpayer funds in public schools should be forbidden to be part of the adult entertainment industry?

Kevin DuJan is the author of SHUT UP! The Bizarre War that One Public Library Waged Against the First Amendment. He is a gay, Catholic, conservative, Republican who advocates for government transparency, Freedom of Information, Open Meetings, and First Amendment rights. He lives in Chicago with his boyfriend Justin.